V is for Valentino

Kim unlocked the door to her apartment and flicked on the lights as she got in. It had been a shitty day at work and would probably carry over to tonight. She hated Valentine's Day now since her ex-fiancé had dumped her for her ex-best friend last year, just two days before.

"Fucking asshole," she muttered to no one in particular as she put a microwave dinner into the nuke. Kim thought about her life over the past year, while she hadn't gone into a tailspin, she was definitely in a holding pattern. Her mom and girlfriends had all tried setting her up on dates but the guys were so substandard it was laughable.

The microwave beeped and she grabbed a cooler from the fridge and took it and her mystery meat dinner to the couch. She turned on the tv and started channel surfing, eventually stopping at an old 1930's swashbuckler starring Rudolph Valentino and Mary Pickford. She sat and watched the movie, letting her dinner get cold and her drink get warm. Her last waking thought was 'That Valentino sure knew how to treat a woman!'

---

Someone was knocking at the door.

'No, go away' she thought as she slowly came out of a delicious dream.

The knocking continued. Kim moaned as she came fully awake.

'This had better be good' she thought as she went and opened the door. "Yes, can I help...you?"

In the doorway stood a man dressed all in black. Black shirt, pants, boots, gloves and bandana mask. He had a fancy rapier at his waist and a cape as well as a pencil moustache.

"Kim Gallant? I am here at the behest of your fianće."

He got down on one knee and held a small box up to Kim. "Kim Gallant, will you marry me?"

She stood in shock for a moment, then tears started to slowly course down her cheeks as she turned away.

"Miss? Are you okay?" the man in black said as he quickly stood up. "Did I get it wrong? Sorry but I'm really new to this celebrity proposal business."

"No sorry it's not you, there must have been a mistake. My fianće left me a year ago."

Kim could see the man in black's face blanch. "Oh shit, your order must have been the one they lost last year. I heard the guy was totally freaked because the ring was really expensive."

"If it's who I think it is, the ring is priceless. It was my grandmother's ring." Kim said with disgust. "May I see the ring please?"

He handed the ring box to Kim. She took the ring out with shaking hands and checked the inside of the band. "There! See? Those are my grandparents' initials."

Zorro or whoever he was supposed to be took off his bandana and ran his fingers through his hair. "Listen you were my last call for the night. I don't normally do this, probably because I'm proposing for people, but would you like to grab a bite to eat and explain this to me?"

Kim looked a bit surprised, "Shouldn't you be going home to your girlfriend?"

"Can't say I have one currently." he said as he surreptitiously checked Kim out. He figured she was 5'8", slim without being too skinny, curves in all the right places. She had short brown hair and sparkly blue eyes.

Kim looked Zorro up and down, brazen in her evaluation of him. She liked what she saw, he was definitely buff, and she liked his shy smile. And he genuinely seemed to be a stand up guy. "Well Zorro, I don't normally go out with guys if I don't at least get their name."

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I'm Rudy Valentine," he said as he held out his hand.

Kim tried to suppress a snicker, then a small laugh escaped. Finally she couldn't hold it back. She began to laugh so hard tears were running down her cheeks again.

Rudy smiled, "Okay, okay. Let it out, it's so funny that a guy named Rudy Valentine works as a cheesy Rudolph Valentino wanna be for a proposal service. I'll have you know I'm our most popular proposal character."

Hiding a smile behind her hand Kim replied, "I'm sure you are. You have a certain presence about you. Is your moustache real or a fake?"

Rudy smiled, "Does it look fake Kim?"

She leaned forward and lightly ran her finger tips along it. "Wow you really take your work seriously. I can't believe it's real."

"Well I kinda grew it on a dare and it looked so good I decided to keep it." Rudy said as he blushed.

Kim smiled, "Well I like it. For some reason it really suits you."

Rudy blushed again and smiled shyly, "So would you like to get something to eat Kim?"

Kim looked at her cream of something with mystery meat dinner and shuddered. "Sure, let me get my coat."

---

They found a noodle house not far away and sat and waited for their orders.

"So what do you do Kim?"

"I'm a paralegal, and today everything went wrong, it really sucked. What about you? Do you only do the proposal thing, or do you do other stuff too?"

Rudy laughed and his eyes twinkled, "I only do this part-time, I'm a full-time firefighter. I do do some summer stock too."

"Wow, a man of many talents! And you're sure you don't have a girlfriend hiding out somewhere?" Kim said as she flirted shamelessly. She really liked his brash and bashful personality, the polar opposites made Rudy seem that much sexier.

Their food came while they were still talking. They barely noticed the waiter placing the food on the table.

Rudy asked Kim how her ex had managed to lose her ring.

Kim got a hollow look in her eyes for a second. "Well Rob and I had planned on getting married and I knew he was going to propose, I just didn't know when and where. I thought we were both madly in love, but I found out the hard way that I was the only one in love when I caught him and my best friend in bed together just two days before Valentine's Day. Stupid me I had no idea of his plan and didn't know what he'd done with my grandmother's ring. I was devastated to say the least."

They continued talking while they finished their meal. Then Rudy drove Kim home, and she asked him up to her apartment.

The tv was still on and the swashbuckler was still playing. They sat down to watch the rest of the movie. Kim snuggled under Rudy's arm.

"Kim do you believe in fate, karma or kismet?"

"What like things happening for a reason? Yeah I guess I do to a certain extent."

"Well maybe you were supposed to split up with your dumb ass cheating fianće. Maybe your grandmother's ring needed to be lost for a year. And maybe I was supposed to bring it back dressed like Rudolph Valentino is in that movie. Is any of this making sense or am I talking through my ass?"